The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-10-27
POLITICS I'm The c. A. r.
Inc Rebuke Administered to Foraker,
futile, Etc, by Loyal Veterans

futile, Etc, by Loyal Veterans
President Cleveland was not mis-
taken in his estimate of the Union vet
eran when he considered him as aEi-
mated by the desire of aiding and re.
speeding the Government he helped to
save. OF course there are exceptions,
such as the blasphemer. Fairchild; the
ex-cotton grabber, futile, and the
crank, FandervOort, as during the war
there were bummers in Sherman S
army and outlawed guerillas every
where in the track of the Union and
| Confederate forces. The Grand Army
OF the Republic, as an organization.
must be commended for the decided
manner in which it sat down on the
partisan demagogues who wished to
! put 1t on record as openly insulting the
President of the United States. Every
thing that malice and ingenuity could
suggest was put in operation to secure
the official sanction of the order to the
infamous conduct of futile, whose
mouthpiece. VandervOort. expended all
the blatant eloquence he was capable
OF In the attempt to bolster up the ex-
cotton grabber. But thanks to the
healthy public sentiment which has re-
vealed itself in all parts of the country
and to the better and more patriotic
element in the Grand Army itself, An
unqualified rcbuke was administered
to futile, Fairchild and their adher-
ents. 1t has been officially determined
that the Grand Army of the Republic
does not countenaEce blackguard at
tacks upon the President of the United
States, even though lie be of different
political faith from that upheld by that
organization.
For the Grand Army has distinctly
shown its allegiance to the Republican
party in the attitude it assumed dur
ing the recent encampment. Politics
took up Il great portion OF its time, and
it served notice on the party with which
it affiliates rs to what its choice would
be during the Presidential year. One
of the most prominent and gallant
Union commanders, General Siocum.
who was the principal candidate for
the position that Fairchild disgraced,
was rejected for an obscure Minnesota
lawyer, simply because he was DEM
ocrat. There was something more
than mere buncOmbe in the expression
which one fool partisan member of the
organization is reported to have made,
that there never had been 4 Demo-
cratic Commander-in-C Chief, and, by
the Eternal, there never would be-"
The fact that it is a Republican organ
ization, emphasizes the more the re-
fusal of the Grand Army to counte-
nance attacks upon the Democratic
President, and testifies that Union vet
Grams, whatever their politics may be,
can not lie seduced into disunion pol
icy at the beck of INSCRIPTIONS dema-
gOgues. VandervoOrt's resolution,
urged with all the vehemence of a ma
lignant nature, was defeated by such
decisive vote that we will likely hear
but little for the future of Tuttleism,
Fairchildism and Forakermania in the
ranks of the Grand Army. A great
deal is due to the wise and temperate
councils and wholesome influence of
General Sherman in bringing about
such Il satisfactory result.
The defeat of the much-discussed
service pension measure by the National
encampment was Il singing rebuke to
those degenerate members who would
turn the order into mendicant body
and play into the hands of the most
outrageous lobby that ever cursed the
halls of Congress. I'VE will continue
to ask for aid until no wall of sorrow
is heard from destitute and disabled
veterans" hypocritically exclaims
Palsy Fairchild, knowing as he does,
that the government is now paying
$40, 000,0 900 4 year to the 100000 pen
sioners on its rolls. Another beautiful
specimen of the pension shark was one
Comrade Stephen j. Burrows, of Mans
field Post, No So, of this State. who
naively stated th?t the surplus should
90 to the veterans and ''the taxpayers be
damned" We also have one Gen
eral Bennett, of Richmond. Ind, who
puts the matter in this modest light
The annual surplus reaches $l36, 0O0,-
900. Give the boys the SOC. 900;
let the thieves keep the $4,000 600
remaining" Such expressions show
what disreputable element the de-
cent members OF the Grand Army had
to contend against. The buster and
fury of such an element will have little
effect now that the organization at its
highest council deliberately and effect
lively sat down on them. 1t is a pity.
however, that narrow-minded partisan
ship should have been carried so far as
to reject such a distinguished soldier
rs Slocum because he is a democrat.
His election would have tended to
purify the position in which Fairchild
brought such lasting obloquy.-Atbany
(N. l. argus.